Preview

Theme Of Out, Out By Wilfred Owen

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1020 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Theme Of Out, Out By Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost successfully convey the brutal, cruel and inhumane theme of violence in their eye-opening poems, 'Disabled' and 'Out, Out'. Set during the hard times of war, these poems portray different war-related themes and carry their own distinctive similarities and differences, contrasting with one another.

On one hand we have 'Disabled,' written by Wilfred Owen with his intense experience as a soldier in the First World War. His past experience inspires his piece of poetry heavily. Whereas, on the other hand, we have 'Out, Out's poet; Robert Frost, a British-settled American who returned from England at the start of World War One. He was regarded as the unofficial "poet laureate" of the United States. (Note that both the
…show more content…
Whereas Robert Frost’s title is a reference to Shakespeare’s famous play, ‘Macbeth.’ It alludes to Macbeth’s speech after the death of his wife. Why did Frost use this title? Well, because both of the pieces of poetry convey various human hopelessness related themes. (The image of hopelessness also links with that of Disabled.) Frost’s slicing of the phrase, “Out, Out” as opposed to “Out, out, brief candle!” further extends the image of hopelessness to violence. Robert Frost had an event like this occur in his life; his neighbour was a young man who sliced his hand on a saw and later …show more content…
His lack of consistency with the structure of 'Out, Out' merges with the sudden, tragic and violent accident of the boy with the saw. He doesn't write in paragraphs, but in a blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter to be specific.) In 'Disabled,' the stanzas might occur due to the contrasting of the soldier's present and the past throughout the poem. Whereas 'Out, Out' talks about the present throughout, hence not written in stanzas. Unlike 'Disabled,' there is no rhyming scheme, again referring to unpredictability. Overall, the structure is consistent and predictable, whereas the structure of ‘Out, Out’ is the exact opposite; inconsistent and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Wilfred Owen Essay

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Wilfred Owen successfully creates the truthful and terrifying image of war within his poems. The loss, sacrifice, urgency and pity of war are shown within the themes of his poetry and the use of strong figurative language; sensory imagery and tone contribute to the reader. This enables the reader to appreciate Owen’s comments about the hopelessness of war and the sacrifice the men around him went through within his poems, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est.’ and ‘Futility’.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 and became known as one of the most outstanding poets of the 1st world war. He himself fought on the front line during the war and witnessed first hand the extreme situations and terrible conditions soldiers experienced. Owen felt that war was pointless causing nothing but pain and suffering and this is shown in many of his poems. Both poems ‘Exposure’ and ‘Spring Offensive’ show the extreme situations and inhuman misery that soldiers went through.…

    • 2015 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    2009 HSC QUESTIONS 1

    • 1435 Words
    • 1 Page

    The recollection of Wilfred Owen’s poetry epitomise the true depiction of war and consequently the dehumanising ramifications of warfare. Influenced by the extremities and first hand experiences on the battlefield, Owen’s poetry encapsulates the extraordinary human experiences to the degree of unbearable suffering and extreme states of dehumanisation. Owen’s vivid portrayal of war corresponds to his personal endeavour in condemning the misconceptions of war; where he manifests the brutal reality and the detrimental aspects of warfare- the powerful and destructive entity of war; the dehumanising consequences of slaughter; and the abhorrent physiological, psychological and emotional trauma suffered through modern warfare. These aspects are incorporated into the texts which correspond to Owen’s portrayal of suffering and pity; revolving Owen’s poetry on the basis of extraordinary human experiences.…

    • 1435 Words
    • 1 Page
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Owen wrote this poem to express the damage done through war towards the humanity of the soldiers and men involved; he evokes empathy in the readers using techniques such as war imagery and personification.…

    • 658 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The purpose of “Acquainted with the Night” is to show the loneliness one can have going through depression. Almost feeling like everything is sad, even objects or things that don't have feelings. This poem illustrates someone sad and lonely one night walking down the street “unwilling to explain.” The title of this poem holds significance because “acquainted” means to know someone, whereas this piece is about not having anyone and being lonely. On the other hand, “ Out, Out--” was written to portray a story about a young boy cutting wood with his father when his sister calls him in for dinner, he gets excited and jumps up and down and almost cuts his hand off completely with a buzz saw. When the doctor came to help and amputate his hand, the…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilfred Owen Speech

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ok what I have got here today is a detailed speech and I intend to explain two poems “Disabled” and “Dolce et Decorum est.”, both written by Wilfred Owen. I would choose these two poems to be in an anthology because I found the poems to be very dramatic and extremely detailed. Owen intends to shock us by demonstrating what a soldier might expect in a situation between life and death. He is not afraid to show his own feelings. Wilfred Owen is an anti-war poet and expresses his ideas and feelings through various themes and poetic devices which I will be discussing throughout this speech.…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frost and Thomas both write about the harshness of life in their poetry. I believe the poems "Out, Out" by Frost and "The Owl" by Thomas best illustrate this. Frost choosing to show this through the impact of a hard days work on a little boy whereas Thomas uses an owl's cry to connect the lifes of a solider and the poor/homeless to show the similarity in their lives. Both poets emphasise the same theme but their techniques differ to present this.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The ‘horrors of war’ have been conveyed through the over-glorification of war and emotional distress due to witnessing an innocent individual being victimized to war. Denise Levertov and Wilfred Owen’s poems highlight these points through their highly acclaimed war poetry ‘Weeping Woman’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est.’ Utilizing poetic devices and techniques such as imagery, hyperbole, simile, symbolism, anaphora and personification to convey their message across to the audience.…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilfred Owen was not only a soldier exposed to the horrific realities of war, he was also a talented poet who addresses important themes within his poetry such as the false glorification of war. His vivid and visceral descriptions of the horrors of war also strongly addressed the futility of war that people should not have to endure in any lifetime. When exploring his poetry, the audience is compelled to question ‘Was Owen aware that he would never return to…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Compare the ways in which Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost present suffering in ‘Disabled’ and ‘Out, out-‘…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conflict can bare negative consequences on people’s lives forcing them to do things they wouldn’t choose to do and breaking them mentally. The commonly recognized conflict of war changes people’s life’s in many ways but in the poem ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen sharing the story of a battered war veteran, shows that it has had a depressing effect on the main character. The tribulations of war not only affected him physically by needing three of his limbs amputated but affected him deep down, making him feel less of the man he use to be. The conflict of war had changed him from an attractive ladies man to nothing but a saddened and crippled figure left to spend years in an institution.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilfred Owen

    • 1776 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Many of Owen’s poems share resentment towards the generals and those at home who have encouraged war.‘ Disabled’ has a very bitter tone–‘ Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts’.‘ His Meg’ didn’t stay around after he joined to‘…

    • 1776 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Out, Out

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    a. It seems to me that Macbeth’s verse is about how short life is, that life is just a shadow, a player, in the game of life, that walks around on a stage, then one day is over. Frost uses part of the first line of Macbeth’s verse “Out, out” as his title as a way to agree with and reference Macbeth as one of his role models in poetry.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost both use their poems “Out, Out-” and “Disabled” to portray the destruction of youth and how it can be cut short by a lack of maturity and wisdom. This creates a sense of loss of innocence within the reader. In “Out, Out-” the subject or character has a very quick and short death which contrasts to “Disabled” as death would be a merciful release to the veteran described. Frost and Owen also both use a third person omniscient speaker to give the reader the viewpoints from both sides. Both the poets use description as a means to portray the horror of both incidents and they similarly both use imagery and sensuous language within this description.…

    • 3116 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    3. Frost’s reference to Macbeth’ contributes to my understanding of “Out, Out-“that this poem’s theme is about death. From the reference to Shakespeare play, Macbeth, I can expect read about someone dying, an unexpected death. In my opinion, the theme of this poem is the cruel, emotionless, merciless relationships adults had with their children back then in America. Children weren’t given the opportunity to enjoy their childhood. They had many responsibilities and tasks to fulfill.…

    • 2098 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics